Breaking Out: Scoot McNairy in Killing Them Softly

Brad Pitt, who is probably killing you, for one reason or another, in the latest ad campaign for Chanel No. 5, does killing of an entirely different sort in his latest film, Killing Them Softly, directed by Andrew Dominik and opening this weekend. In the movie, based on the George V. Higgins novel Cogan’s Trade, Pitt plays a no-nonsense hit man, regulating the fracas among a slew of gangsters—James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn—who you wouldn’t want to meet in an Italian restaurant. Playing opposite Pitt is Scoot McNairy as Frankie, a scrawny motormouth, in way over his head after making quick money in a hold-up. The movie is mercilessly violent, and McNairy provides much of its comic breaks—neurotic, amateur, and doomed. The actor (né John), who has always gone by his nickname, left his native Dallas in his early twenties and headed to L.A. for film school, initially interested in being behind the camera. More than a decade of acting has followed—culminating in a steady stream of notable roles—first as Joe, the naysaying fugitive in this year’s Argo, and soon to be followed by characters in Gus Van Sant’s forthcoming Promised Land,Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, and Non-Stop with Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. Married to actor Whitney Able, McNairy recently moved back to Texas. He spoke to Vogue about his latest role and impending fame.

You’ve been working for so long and Killing Them Softly is a big jump to a starring role in a major feature film. Were you nervous?

I probably should have been nervous, but I was so focused on trying to do a good job for Andrew [Dominik]. He took such a risk on giving me this job, he’d never seen me in anything, never heard of me before, and hired me as a lead in one of his films. I told him: “I feel like I’ve never been more ready for this than I am right now. It’s already my tenth or eleventh year in the business.”

You’re in quite a few movies next year, and you’ve had these breakout roles in Argo and Killing Them Softly. It seems like your daily life might change soon.

God, I hope not—I enjoy no one recognizing me. I like to stare at people a lot and watch them, and it’s incredibly difficult to do if you’re being watched. I moved to Texas a year ago, right after these jobs, just thinking, if the shit hits the fan I can hide out in the country. In no way do I want to draw attention to myself. I just want to keep laying down really great, strong characters, and the more I go unrecognized, the better job I feel I’m doing. I think East Texas will keep my life very much the same. I live in the middle of nowhere; nobody watches movies out there.

What has the reaction to Argo been like? Particularly because it retells a story that people remember and have an opinion about. Are people coming up to you to talk about it?

To be honest with you, no one’s really recognized me in the movie.

In addition to the fluidity of the story and the acting in Argo, the clothes were great.

Jackie West [the film’s costume designer] is incredible. I buttoned up my vest one day in the embassy, and she came up and unbuttoned it. I was like, “You know, I was thinking Joe’s a tight person, very together,” and she said, “I know, but nobody buttoned their vest back then.” That makes her so incredibly on it, you know?

Did you grow up loving movies; did you do any theater?

I did theater as a kid, more of an after-school program. But every night I would put on a movie and fall asleep to it.

Which films in particular influenced you?

Stand By Me was really great for me and my buddies, we’d all watch that together because that was us—we were down in the creek and hanging out every day and going on little adventures. I had about sixteen friends who are all about the same age as me and lived in a three-block radius. We spent our entire childhood down in that creek.

Are all those guys still your friends?

Oh yeah, we’re all going camping in two weeks.

It’s really hard to find your age on the Internet. Are you keeping that to yourself?

I mean I used to keep it quiet, but I guess it doesn’t really matter now. I’m 34 years old. They printed somewhere that I was 30. And I was like, “Well that’s nice. You know what I mean? I’m not going to fact-check that one.”

You could really tell people anything—“Seventeen-year-old wunderkind actor.”

“Breakout performance at eighteen. This guy’s been at it since he was two!”